The pretend-moderate Iranian cleric (Snoopy’s been on the case here, here, and here) told his fellow America-haters to stop gloating about our financial crisis. Yeah, it really doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see that as the West goes, so goes the less-developed world.
“We should not think the financial crisis that hit the world is in our interest and so on and express joy,” Rafsanjani, who heads a powerful clerical body, said in comments on state radio.
“It should not be that some say the crisis is very good for us and it is a miracle coming from God to punish them (the West),” said the cleric, who also said in September Washington was paying for its past policy mistakes.
“The first negative consequence of the wave is the fall in oil prices … The drop in oil causes major damage to us. We have to be alert and cooperate with each other to contain the negative results of the next wave coming from this tsunami.”
They’re sweating in Iran. Even Reuters is acknowledging that their budget requires much higher oil prices than the current ones.
Some economists say Iran, which a few years ago lived with oil around $20 to $25 a barrel, now needs $70 to $75 a barrel.
“That is the minimum the government needs in order to keep the government budget sustainable and not to withdraw reserves from the Oil Stabilization Fund which is already empty. There is no other reserve for the government,” said one Iranian economist, speaking before the latest oil price plunge.
The International Monetary Fund has said that to keep the current account in the black Iran needs more than $75 a barrel for its crude. Others say Tehran may need as much as $100.
Gee, maybe they should be expending all that effort in something other than obtaining a nuclear bomb—like finding something that the world wants to buy from Iran besides oil and rugs. (Can I get one of those flying ones? I’ve always wanted one of those.)
Don’t think this guy doesn’t qualify for the batshit crazy post of the usual Iranian nuttery. He’s accusing the U.S. of nuking Iraq during the first Gulf War. Watch them start using that the next time the U.S. tries to get Iran sanctioned by the UNSC over its nuke program.
By the way—the next time you hear so-called “moderate” is the one who said that Iran could absorb a nuclear blast, but Israeli couldn’t.
Rafsanjani said that Muslims must surround colonialism and force them [the colonialists] to see whether Israel is beneficial to them or not. If one day, he said, the world of Islam comes to possess the weapons currently in Israel’s possession [meaning nuclear weapons] – on that day this method of global arrogance would come to a dead end. This, he said, is because the use of a nuclear bomb in Israel will leave nothing on the ground, whereas it will only damage the world of Islam.
You should read the rest of that link. It’s chock-full of classic anti-Semitic conspiracy theories and the lie that Jews were better off as dhimmis in Muslim states than in Israel today.
Oil closed at $64.15 yesterday, up from the $62 mark, but still down far enough to be hurting Iran, regardless of whether they need $75 or $100/bbl pricing. And that’s great news.